Blade Nzimande calls for EFF to be killed off

Dr Blade Nzimande, SACP General Secretary.
Image by: Bafana Mahlangu

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party says it is not shocked at the call by the General Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP)‚ Blade Nzimande‚ for the EFF to be killed off.

It charged that Nzimande has called on “a party that openly rejects neoliberalism‚ embraces socialism and uses Marxism-Leninism-Fanonian schools of thought as guide to action to be killed and removed from society because SACP is opposed to these ideals and schools of thought”.

“Nzimande‚ who leads a communist party that has supported GEAR‚ ASGISA and NDP-led ANC‚ calls for a party in parliament that rejects GEAR‚ ASGISA and the NDP also because SACP is part of driving these policies by their inclusion in government. He does not celebrate that there are left forces in South Africa pursuing socialism and working hard to undermine the neoliberal order because he is part of it.

“Nzimande has not called for parties like the DA who openly advocate for privatization and neoliberalism to be killed or racist organizations like AfriForum or parties that defend white interests like FF+ to die. “He wants the EFF‚ a socialist and left wing party to die because in essence EFF does not depend on white intellectuals like Nzimande's SACP‚” the EFF asserted in a statement.

Nzimande is reported to have stated at the SACP’s special national congress last week that the Young Communist League (YCL) should take on the Economic Freedom Fighters to make sure the party “dies”.

“They must engage them ideologically‚ they must engage them politically‚ they must engage them on the ground in terms of ensuring that the EFF dies…‚” he was quoted as saying. When asked to expand on his comments‚ he was reported as saying: “Alright‚ we don’t mean physical death‚ we mean organisational death.”

The YCL would be the more appropriate structure to take them on‚ because they are young‚ he added. In its statement on Sunday‚ the EFF said it had managed to “grow into a formidable force‚ both in the urban and rural areas‚ but also in intellectual stature‚ without any white supervision”.

“This is what really troubles Nzimande. What makes gives him sleepless nights is that unlike him‚ blacks of the EFF have managed to truly build an alternative socialist party without any white supervision.”

It claimed that the SACP's role had always been to “marginalise radical blacks within the left in protection of white privilege hence their comfort with a neoliberal bourgeois nationalist ANC”.